For many citizens of Belarus, a living wage budget, minimum wage, average wage, base amount are concepts that mean the same thing. In a country where there are a huge number of obscure notations, people very often confuse economic terms, explaining to colleagues and acquaintances it is not clear what. If the living wage budget is only responsible for the critical poverty line and is designed for one person, then the base amount affects fines, benefits and other obligatory payments. In a nutshell, it is very difficult for a person who does not understand anything in the economy to understand, therefore, below we will describe why BPM cannot be called a minimum.
What is BPM
Every three months, the government approves a living wage budget. Over the past ten years, he has never fallen in Belarus. The amount is set depending on the prices of the last month in each quarter. The BPM, set for three months (a quarter), according to the government, is the critical minimum that one person needs to survive. BPM is not equal for all segments of the population. It is calculated separately for pensioners, people with disabilities, children under three years of age, children from three to eighteen years of age, and the able-bodied population.
If you carefully study all the statistics for the last five years, then every three months BPM rose by 30,000-70,000 Belarusian rubles. On average, every quarter, you can expect that the budget for the cost of living in Belarus will rise by fifty thousand Belarusian rubles. A new amount is set every four times a year, this is:
- from February 1 to April 30;
- from May 1 to July 31;
- from August 1 to October 31;
- from November 1 to January 31.
What does BPM affect?
Prior to the introduction of the new law, which entered into force in February 2013, BPM affected the amount of child allowance. A mother raising one child under three years of age and being married received only one budget of a living wage. Also, this value affects the payment of assistance to low-income citizens - the so-called targeted assistance.
BPM and employers who have wage arrears also suffer from a rise. The amount of deduction on debt depends on the size of this indicator.
Each new mother after childbirth receives financial assistance for a newborn baby. 10 BPM are paid for the first child, 14 BPM for the second and subsequent children. Also, mothers are charged 1 budget of the subsistence minimum if, before 12 weeks, she was registered with the antenatal clinic and throughout the pregnancy she followed all the instructions of the attending physician.
The calculation of old-age pensions, scholarships and allowances, but in percentage terms, also depends on this economic indicator.
Social benefits and BPM
Targeted assistance is accrued to low-income families. Basically, these are families where one of the parents brings up the child, but there are also complete families in which the father receives the minimum wage, and the mother, for example, is on a maternity leave. They do not have sufficient allowances and minimum wages, and one of the applicants for help is paid the missing amount of money for each family member. To do this, take into account the minimum budget for a living wage, which is set in the country at the time of application.
Targeted assistance is paid within 6 months from the date of application. Over half a year, BPM will manage to double in size, which means that with each increase, the family will receive more targeted assistance.
What is enough for BPM
Every three months, the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the population as a percentage calculates what mandatory expenses each citizen of the Republic of Belarus needs. It depends on price increases.
The biggest waste is food. They should go up to 54.9%. Next are utilities, payment for electricity, gas, telephone and water - this is 15%. Clothing - 17.6%. Transport and household services (transportation, calling plumbing, electrics, etc.) - 6.4%. Goods intended for domestic and household use - 3.3%. Payments and contributions - 0.6%. Medicines and essentials - 2.2%.
If we talk about exact numbers, then the budget for the living wage in Belarus since February 1, 2014 amounted to 1,128,100 rubles. It turns out that we can spend a little more than 28,000 rubles a month on medicines and other sanitation facilities.
Minimum consumer budget and BPM: what is the difference
The economic indicator - the minimum living budget - is often confused with the name of the indicator the living wage budget. Belarus 2014 in February provided the difference between the two erroneous terms. BPM, as previously mentioned, amounted to - 1 128 100 Belarusian rubles, when the BCH on the same date, 480 690 rubles of the family of 4 people.
The difference between these two numbers is that the first tells us about the critical minimum that a person needs to survive every month, and the second economic indicator is the level of social survival. It is believed that the minimum consumer budget should be enough for a person not only to survive, for this amount he can even afford to have a child. It’s not worth saying that “letting you have” and “really raising a child” are different concepts.
Citizens Opportunities and Economic Indicators
How much this or that value rises or falls depends only on the capabilities of the state itself. The budget of the cost of living of the Republic of Belarus, for example, depends on rising prices, other economic indicators - on the performance of citizens, on taxes that are paid to the treasury, on “black” profit. Some payments are tied to the BPM, some to the base value, something is paid, starting from the minimum wage. Ultimately, there is no difference. If the government revises the law and decides that fines should not be paid in basic terms, but in other economic indicators, then it will be so. Moreover, the majority of Belarusians will not even replace the changes in the law. The amount before and after the change will remain the same, only the names of the calculation and the calculation method will change. It is very difficult to say how good or bad it will be for an ordinary citizen of the Republic of Belarus.